The archivolts, door jams, facade
reliefs and floors of many
Romanesque and Gothic churches contained reliefs, mosaics or medallions which represented
either or both of the twelve signs of the Zodiac and the twelve typical activities
associated with them. This material is also to be found in
misericords and also stained glass, and sometimes there were also other subjects,
such as illustrations (reminders ?) of the Cardinal & Christian virtues and sins.
Seasonality was medieval life's in your face reality, and most would
have felt lucky surviving to another pig killing time without starving
of being killed in someone else's war.

Right down
south in
Otranto (Puglia)
monthly activities and zodiac signs are to be found in the eastern nave
section of the
mosaics which cover the entire cathedral floor,
and there are several other examples in reliefs in northern Italian
churches. In Perugia, the monthly labours are portrayed in some of
the relief panels which ring the bottom tier of the magnificent
Fontana Maggiore outside the Duomo.

Canterbury
Cathedral has a well worn set of very unusual and large round Zodiac,
monthly activity, sins, virtues and heraldic beast medallions
inset into the east (Trinity Chapel) floor near where the Shrine of Saint Thomas used to
be, whilst a bit further south in Kent (at
Brooklands in the Romney Marshes) there is a beautiful Norman lead font with
reliefs of both zodiac signs and monthly labours (one and two thirds
times over).

A full set of monthly
activity scenes is incorporated into the choir capitals, but
only half are visible because of the subsequently erected
ugly dark wood choir panelling (done by the Victorians of
course).

"The square stone font has
three relief panels on each side depicting labours of the months. The font is in outstanding
condition, especially considering that it spent several
decades in bits in a rockery garden. The church, which
has been rebuilt several times, still has a rare round Saxon
stone tower."

"......the
famous Fincham font, one of the best Norman fonts in East
Anglia. It probably came from the lost neighbouring church
of Fincham St Michael, and sits foursquare on a little
raised platform. Each side has three panels, making twelve
in all, and each side depicts a scene from the Bible. On the
south side is the nativity; Joseph and Mary inhabit the
first two panels, while the third depicts the infant Christ
in the manger. Two oxen low above him, facing out of the
panel, and above is a magnificent star. This will guide the
three Magi on the eastern panels. The north panels depict
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, with the tree of
Knowledge between them restored by the Victorians. Adam
hides his nakedness, and holds his head in despair. In
contrast, the western panels depict a magnificent Baptism of
Christ, with John the Baptist on the right and a Bishop on
the left. In the centre, a dove descends onto Christ who
appears to be standing in a font."

One of the rescued west
facade bas reliefs "the punishment of sodomy" is now on
display in the cathedral.

Some of the surviving
wooden roof bosses in their rather dingy cloister are
monthly labours, maybe, but don't hold your breath! On
the left below, a medieval power walker carrying something,
and on the right almost certainly a December pig about to
get whacked and cooked for Christmas dinner.

A weathered Pisces and
Taurus are to be found sculptured on two of the voussoirs
circling the St George tympanum now on the inside north wall
of the of
the church. Sagittarius has found his way onto a voussoir
now behind a locked door on the north side.

On the font - Eve looking puzzled, Adam
being rehabilitated and a magnificent Sagittarius about to
shoot an equally magnificent Aquarius to prevent the latter
flooding the earth .... well worth a visit!

Saint Mary, Fairford

This amazing
Cotswolds' "wool church" has the only complete
original set of
stained glass (c1510) in England, and also a lot of misericords.

Photographs in the green room .... not sure whether there's
any Zodiacs / labours there ......

Inset in the floor on
either side of where the
shrine of St Thomas (Becket) used to be (now called the
Trinity Chapel), this elegantly
worn set of floor roundels made in the 1200s
depict months, labours, vices, virtues and a couple of
heroes.

Various monthly activity
interpretations can be given to some of the outer voussoirs of the south
door of the little pilgrimage church of St Nicholas in the hamlet of
Barfreston between Canterbury and Dover. Leave it to you to see,
but whatever the interpretations the sculptures around the south door
are
plentiful, fun, original, fascinating, rare and very old - and there is
a nice pub next door for lunch!

A very rare example in Britain
of both Zodiacs and Monthly Activities together (almost twice over) is to be
found in the wrap around stamped lead of Saint Augustine's 1100s font
(see also photo at top of page).

The lower part of the
west portals is faced by a masonry band within which sit two
rows of quatrefoil framed bas reliefs. These include
representations of Zodiac signs, monthly labours, vices and
virtues and ? (a quatrefoil has an outline shape
similar to a four leaved clover, a trefoil would be like a
three leaf clover, etc). The photo link on the left also has
images of the last judgement tympanum.

On the jams of the doors of the
western facade, an incomplete set of Zodiac signs is
by the left door, whilst a full set of
monthly activities is by the right door, all dating
from the period 1130 - 40 (which is more than can be said
for most of the other stuff there) though the activities
look younger and a bit more elaborate.

In
the north ambulatory pavement is a mosaic of October's activity -
winemaking - the only survivor of what would have been a
set of 12 activities around the central platform of the St-Fermin Chapel and dating from the 1100s.

Most magnificently, the south transept rose has a set of zodiac signs in a
circle of 12 roundels in mid window, and on the
circumference are 24 trefoil panels including monthly activities.
In 2007, none of this was visible because of window
restoration. The window, like its
northern sister, dates from the 1840s, though the designs
are traditional and could be a copy of what was there
earlier.

West
Rose Window. The bottom part of the rose is partially obscured by organ pipes
(the great disease of the 17 / 1800s in European churches), but
there is a
full cycle of 12 Zodiacs, 12 monthly activities,
12 vices
and 12 virtues ( ? - it's usually 7!) so it's worth having a good look with the
binoculars. The window dates from 1220, though a lot
of the glass has had to be replaced over the centuries.

Door Jams of the (north) west portal
(the Coronation Portal or Portal of the Virgin). Again,
these date from the 1200s originally, but is is doubtful
that many of those there now have been around for that long.

The west portal archivolt of this charismatic old Clunaic
Priory church has a weathered set of zodiacs and monthly
activities. Although not in very good condition they
are more finely sculptured than their cousins at nearby
Vézelay and slightly more distant
Autun.

A lead font very similar
to the one at St
Augustine, Brookland (Kent), though closer
inspection will reveal that the images / lettering on the
blocks used to stamp the lead were different in a number of
ways.

The 1200s "Zodiac
Window" in
Chartres cathedral shows all the zodiac signs and monthly
labours in magic stained glass panels. The paradoxplace pages explain the window and show large photos
of the individual frames

Signs of the zodiac
are displayed in circular stained glass panels at the end
of the "spokes" of the upper half of the south rose window,
and labours of the months are shown in a similar way in the
north rose window. And we spent two
hours there (partly enjoying organ practice - the acoustic
is magnificent) and noticed neither of them
...... but nonetheless we do have a photo.

There was at one stage
an arch full of painted zodiacs just inside the abbey
church's west door. Nowadays most have worn off
completely, and
even what remains is hardly visible. So, no photos in
Paradoxplace, though there are some of the church and its
famous frescos (now revealed, but in 2007 mostly boarded up for
restoration work).

Many of the Italian examples of
this genre are relief panels showing monthly activities, with an small
illustrative Zodiac sign shown in a corner. Interestingly the 4
final "-ber" months in the year are often spelt in English!

Venice - San Marco

The West Door portal of
San Marco has a set of elaborately sculptured labours of the
month scenes.

Verona -
San Zeno

Reliefs
in the portal are well protected and in reasonable condition.

Piacenza
- San Savino (near the Duomo)

Ignore San Savino's
baroque facade, and go inside where there are two
restored polychrome mosaic floors dating from the 1100s. In the crypt are
the signs of the Zodiac and illustrations of monthly
labours and also the tomb of San Savino (the second bishop
of Piacenza who died c 420). The Presbytery floor illustrates
time forever spinning, the
impossibility of holding back the march of time, and the
importance of using time to practice the
cardinal virtues of
Prudence (chess players checking their moves), Fortitude
(knights in arms), Temperance (a man refraining from
drinking) and Justice (a king abiding by the law).
Also of special note here are the anthropomorphic capitals
of the Lombard Romanesque nave columns.

The rim of the arch in
front of the central door has bas-reliefs of zodiac signs
set in marble roundels, there are some good narrative
lintels and the facade has some
interesting beasties.

Parma, Baptistery

The lower "band" of
the Baptistery exterior has a bas-relief zoophorus running completely round it,
with figures of real and imaginary animals, diabolical and sea monsters,
centaurs, mermaids, unicorns, signs of the zodiac and activities of the
month.

Panels
depicting monthly activities plus small Zodiac signs are on the lower part of the west facade.
An evocative memory for the Dom because this was his first conscious
sighting of "labours of the month" art. If you go there, also cast your eyes up to the "knotted"
marble columns at
each end of the top level of the facade.

Photos in Gino Casagrande's web page.
There are 12 large double panels - two reliefs illustrating monthly
activities for each month. Small reliefs of the relevant zodiac
sign appear in the corner of the first of each of the double panels.

"In 2002 art
historian Andreina Draghi discovered an amazing
display of frescoes, dating back to 13th century,
while restoring the Gothic Hall of the monastery. Most of
the scenes were well preserved under a thick layer of
plaster, and represented the Twelve Months, the Liberal
Arts, the Four Seasons and the Zodiac. The image of King
Solomon, a pious and a judge, painted on the northern
wall led scholars to argue the room was meant to be a Hall
of Justice. Plaster was possibly laid after 1348 Black
Death for hygienic reasons, or perhaps in the 15th
century, when the Camaldolese left the monastery."

Deep down in the
"heel" of Italy, the entire floor of the Cattedrale di
Otranto is still covered with the mosaics originally laid in
the mid 1100s. The nave area to the west of the
crossing is occupied by three rows of four large mosaic
roundels - each one illustrating a monthly labour and with the
relevant Zodiac sign as a smaller offset image. Their large size has allowed
their artists to be more inventive and include more detail
than any other set in this list (see below). Because
Otranto in winter is tourist free, it is easy to see most of
the mosaics at close quarters.